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User blog:WiggysPond/Game Strategies
What Is Your Goal? When it comes to playing My Little Pony by GameLoft, a player has to decide which approach they plan to take: *Do you want to quickly play through the whole game and move on to something else? Is real money no object? *Do you want to try to solve the game as efficiently as possible without paying real money? *Do you want to be able to savor this game over several months, having fun with the ponies and enjoying the quests? My personal opinion is that this is a game to really be enjoyed for at least six months, hopefully longer, as you work hard to fulfill the quests. If you follow some strategies I offer, you should be able to get to a point that is lots of fun, but still in the thick of gameplay! I suggest you plan to spend some real money, perhaps as much as $20 total, to obtain some special things during time limited events. Although it isn't required, if you play for ten months, it averages out to $2 a month for this entertainment. If you do spend a little money, this in turn supports GameLoft, which then allows them to continue to offer exciting updates with even better features! Which ever choice you make, please do not complain about the gem cost of ponies or purchase price of gems, since GameLoft is not in business to entertain people for free. Unfortunately! Ha! Game Elements The game is structured in the following way: *Quests need to be completed to finish the game. Each town has their own set of quests and finishing point. *Ponies will be required to complete quests along the way. Ponies can be earned in several ways. *Shops will be required to earn bits, obtain shards, and to complete quests. *Bits must be earned to pay for shops, ponies, totem clearings, and mini-games. *Shards will need to be collected in several places to complete quests, remove obstacles, or earn currency (gems, bits, wheels). *Obstacles, pests, and dark areas will need to be removed, which will cost bits, gems, or shards. *Mini-games will need to be played many times to raise ponies' experience levels (stars), earn Event prizes, and earn bits, decor or ponies. *Events allow players to earn prizes that are otherwise difficult to obtain. *Time is required to earn items as quickly as possible. *Inviting friends to join your social group allows you to earn hearts, which are then used to buy ponies and play balloon pop game. *Doing all of the above will give you experience points (XP), which rewards you when you move to the next level up. Beginning Strategy In the beginning, a player is able to earn a few shops and ponies without very much effort, just by following the quests. (But be sure to save your gems and ignore Spike when he asks you to Skip an activity to save time. Saving gems is your first real tip!) So your strategy at the beginning of this game should be: *Read the Friends Directory spreadsheet and start sending Invites to all the players listed. Expect this to take a long time. It pays off quickly by earning you hearts (thus ponies) and someone to dance with, increasing your dance scores. *Play mini-games as often as possible to raise Twilight and all the new ponies up to five stars. Plan to own just two of the Mane Six at first (Twilight and Pinkie Pie). *Keep your shops occupied by working ponies so you will always be earning bits. Select the shop items that are more quickly produced when you are otherwise occupied, like while watching television, or on a computer. This can help you earn bits at a faster rate, and doesn't require you to play the game other than looking at the game screen every so often. *Start learning how to dance in the Equestria Girls mini-game. Be sure to dance eight times in 24 hours so that you can complete that quest early. The more perfect your dance steps, the higher your dance score. And if you play often enough from Friday to Friday, you will earn 1,000 bits, some nice decor, and a gift pony! The EG game should always be played each week to earn a new pony. In the beginning, dance at the free level, since you will need your bits for more important things. *Begin clearing Everfree Forest, using all your spare bits. It will be very important for you to obtain the first four ingredients to make totems. Save your shards to get rid of the pests that block your way. Do not try to complete the Harmony Tree quest, or clear areas beyond the Sap ingredient. Those should be completed in the next phase, as they create difficult time-consuming quests which should not be your focus in the beginning. *For those who are interested in playing more quickly, when you receive the first quest to clear the Expansion Areas in Ponyville (The Path to Ponyville), it may be worth skipping for two gems. Soon enough you will have to clear six expansion areas, which will cost you from 5,000 bits for zone five up to 17,500 bits for zone 11. These are the only ones you will need to skip, simply because in the beginning, it is hard to come up with 67,500 bits at that point. Derpy (aka The Pony in the Box) will help you replenish your spent gems. *Be sure to only clear the expansion areas in Ponyville '''to the right of the starting point. Create a direct path to the blue balloon Laughter Harmony Stone, then towards the pink butterfly Friendship Harmony Stone, lastly towards the orange apple Loyalty Harmony Stone. Freeing up these stones will allow you to begin earning bits and gems once you complete all of your Everfree Forest quests. *In '''Canterlot, wait to buy the Pizzeria. It will seem like it takes a long time, but that's okay. Focus on obtaining your first few ponies like Aloe, Astro Pony (from the mine game), and Minuette (using hearts). Focus on raising them to five stars, since it takes a long time in Canterlot to raise ponies, and you will need five star ponies for your shops eventually! *When expanding in Canterlot, expand towards areas that have small rock obstacles. There will be several Canterlot quests requiring removal of obstacles, and the larger stones cost a lot of bits to clear. *Save your gems! Don't pay to skip timers or quest requirements. Only people with unlimited funds should consider spending gems frivolously! Minigame Strategies Equestria Girls *Don't start playing this minigame until after the daily Events schedule has reset or started. This protects you from having zero songs to dance to if an EG event starts that day! *Always pick the Mane Six pony who will give you the best point bonus percentage increase. In the beginning, it will be Twilight (or Pinky Pie) once she has at least three stars. Twilight with three stars at 0% gives you more points than Rainbow Dash at 4% with no stars. Each of the Mane Six's stars are valued at 2%. So in the example above, Twilight will increase your total score by 6%, higher than Rainbow Dash at 4%. *Play often from Friday to Friday to earn 1,000 bits, some nice decor, and a gift pony! The EG game should always be played each week until you earn the new pony. *Do not spend extra bits or gems on the first two lower point valued songs (Opening Theme and This Strange World) if you are still a beginner. *Try to select friends to dance with who are wearing the 4% outfits with the highest scores. They will help you earn more Perfect step scores. Crystal Mine *If you run out of wheels and want to keep playing, tap on trees or decor to find additional wheels. (Do not tap in dark areas near the edges of expansion zones!) *Try disconnecting from WiFi to improve game lag, if that is an issue. Make sure you aren't trying to earn points for a social event, however. Solo event totals are not affected by WiFi. *Upgrades are a very good investment, since they are permanent for all future mine cart games, too. Focus on upgrading the magnet and the power boost first, since these improve point and bit/shard totals. As you move into mid level experience, invest all the bits to upgrade as far as you can. These upgrades will pay off in the Solo Events, at least. Use gems to maximize the upgrades when you are at the right experience level for it (either have plenty of extra gems or want to win more Social Events). *In the beginning, use the 100 bit game to learn how the patterns of the mine appear. You will learn how to simply roll down the stepping track (if there isn't four barrels in your way), when to jump so you can land on a power boost, when to jump to an upper track, etc. You will also figure out when you should not do a double jump (after rolling down a hill where a barrel sits sometimes or when you are in the shadowbolt and diamond dogs stretch). Ball Bounce *Avoid hitting the ball upwards even if the arrow is pointing that way. At the game start, returning the ball with the upwards arc takes significantly longer than the other two directions. A wrong direction will earn two points less, but the time saved allows you to make additional hits. When your score per hit has reached 16 points, you can resume hitting it upwards again. *Perfect hits (correct direction within the green circle) causes the ball to bounce faster, increasing the number of possible hits. *If you miss the ball with less than fifteen seconds left, and the speed resets, start bouncing the ball down as soon as you can. You only get 8 or 9 points hitting it too soon, but you will get a few extra hits this way after missing the ball, since speed will not increase enough in the time left. *If you are still trying to learn how to hit the ball without missing it, just practice swiping a ball in one direction, either straight back, or bounce down. construction Event Strategies In the very beginning, you will not be able to participate in some events until you have reached a certain level. But once you qualify to play, these tips should help. Events start at the same time each day. Pay attention to that time since some strategies require knowing it. Events end at that time, too; they always span 24-hour increments. Also consider the prizes being offered. Are the prizes worth the time invested? If your goal is to get through the game cheaply and quickly, then your answer generally has to be yes. Solo Events *Earn or obtain a specific amount of bits: If you can monitor your game while multi-tasking, consider setting your stores to produce the quicker item. Click on the shop as soon as the product is made. The Theatres with three ponies have the highest rate of bits/minutes return. Windmill is next. Be sure your shops have three ponies (or five) to earn the bit bonus. Group these shops together temporarily during the event. If you are a mid-level player with activated Harmony stones and have already completed your Tree of Harmony and Villain quests in Everfree Forest, convert your extra shards into bits by clicking on the (zoomed-in) stones. Getting rid of pests will also randomly earn you bits. *Spend a specific amount of Bits or Gems: This can be a matter of luck. Sometimes it occurs when you are saving up to make a big in-game purchase of Canterlot wedding decor, and that is helpful. Look at your quests and see which ones you can focus on that require spending gems and bits first. Expansion quests and clearing obstacles help. *Play the required experience earning mini-game 20 times: The three mini-games are played in this order: Ball Bounce, Apple-Picking and Telescope. If you have a lot of ponies who need experience, focus only on playing the required game, and if you don't have enough, then a few of the game that would come before the required game. The prizes for this event are rarely worth the bits spent, however. You generally will spend 2,000 bits to earn 500 bits and some shards! A good strategy is to play the ponies you need to level up anyway, at least until you get to the first prize which is usually the bits. *Earn a specific number of points from the crystal mine mini-game: If the prize is really good (like a pony or gems!), and you have more bits than time, spend 1,000 bits to double your earned points. *Earn a specific number of points from Equestria Girls mini-game: Play the songs as soon as they become available. Check the game at least three times a day, or set a timer to remind you. If you wake up in the middle of the night, consider playing, then go back to sleep! When you have a good collection of bits, always select the 4% outfit upgrade (3500 bits). If you don't have the bits, at least just buy an increase of 2% for your highest earning song. Refer to your friends-only Leadership Board to see which song has your highest score. Choose dancer partners with the highest 4% outfit scores to increase your odds of receiving Triple Perfect points. *Play Balloon Pop Game a specific number of times: Set a timer for every four hours to play balloon pop each time it becomes free. *Remove eight pests (Changelings or Parasprites): Every day, wait until the Events timer resets before clearing away your pests (changelings, parasprites, vampire fruit bats). This way you can have an extra day of pests to clear. *Remove ten Obstacles: Look for the cheapest obstacles to clear, since they tend to be the quickest, too. construction Mid Level Strategies Once you have access to all your map areas, several ponies, a couple of Mane Six, you can decide where you want to focus! Some players choose to complete all the quests in one town first, before moving to another town. Most players go from town to town, completing quests as they appear, ignoring ones that are too difficult to complete. and having fun with the minigames and events. construction High Level Strategies Completing the Collections After all quests have been completed, you may wonder if there is any reason to continue to play the game. For many fans of the show, My Little Pony, the new goal in the game typically becomes "obtain all the available characters". Gameloft now keeps track of your running total for you. There are several ways to obtain characters, which include ponies, gryphons, dragons, and "bad guys" like Discord. Purchase in Store Shop *Characters for each town are listed separately for purchase with bits or gems. If you have enough in-game currency, you simply click on the purchase price to add them to your inventory. *Nearly every pony or character goes on sale at some point throughout the year. So if you are not in a rush, just wait for the sale. For example, Princess Celestia is half price around Hearths Warming. *During promotions, ponies that normally are only available as an event prize (an "info" pony, so-called because of the word INFO under its photo in the Collections), may become available in the Store Shop, usually for several hundred gems. In-App Purchase with Real Money *During sales promotions, characters may be bundled with two other items for sale using the in-app purchase system. These bundles typically include one character, one decor, and a set amount of gems or hearts. *Gameloft occassionally lists a character as a "gift" with a regular priced purchase of gems. Ponies to Raise to Five Stars The Special Event -- Clear The Skies -- gives players a chance to earn a point bonus on top of the points they earn playing in the minigame. If you own the "bonus pony", your score increases by 10% per star up to 50% for a five-star-level pony. These bonus ponies come from the prizes earned in the weekly Social Events. Gameloft tends to "recycle" the bonus ponies, so it is in a player's best interest to raise the following ponies up to five stars to earn the highest possible scores for the Special Events. This is not a complete list, but gives you a working goal to level up each one. *Ace *Apple Rose *Apple Stars *Apple Strudel *Aunt Applesauce *Betty Bouffant *Blue Moon *Caramel Apple *Cheese Sandwich *Compass Star *Daisy *Eclair Crème *Emerald Green *Four Step *Goldie Delicious *Hayseed Turnip Truck *Lemony Gem *Lily Valley *Neon Lights *Nurse Redheart *Peachy Pie *Purple Wave *Royal Pin *Royal Ribbon *Rumble *Savoir Fare *Shooting Star *Silver Shill *Sunny Daze *Swan Song *Thunderlane *Wild Fire *Zipporwhill To view the list of ponies in order of their appearance in-game (as the event bonus, to plan ahead), please refer to the third tab on the Friends Directory spreadsheet: Ponies to Raise to Five Stars. To be continued when time allows.... Category:Blog posts Category:User guides